Recycling needs a big boost to save big bucks
The Council has issued a press release urging residents to help cut council tax by cutting the amount of rubbish they put out and increasing recycling.
At first, I thought the Council had thrown its support behind the radical idea I've been supporting for some time - that of allowing councils to cut the council tax of those who recycle more. This is something that would act as a personal incentive for all of us to boost recycling and save money at the same time.
Just 26% of Wandsworth's rubbish is currently recycled: that remains a low figure given recycling has been a mainstream environmental policy for twenty years or so. I think our recycling rate should be double that - and it's achievable, even in an inner London borough like ours.
But for that we need stronger local leadership. Recycling on council estates remains minimal: a few bins are provided but they're insufficient and not emptied regularly enough. Recycling on estates has become associated with mess and inconvenience, rather than a social good. Only this week I've been in correspondence with the council about this: they sited a bin right next to a resident's living room window. He can't open his window because of the smell created and flies attracted by the recycling as the bin gets full a few days before it is due for collection. This isn't an incentive to recycle: it's a barrier to it.
Doubling Wandsworth's recycling rate won't be easy but we need to make the effort. On council estates, the council has to look at something that has a terrible name but is the only way to really get recycling going: "vertical kerbside" - which means door to door recycling collections. Or, in blocks where there are two distinct rubbish chutes, it should look at the viability of designating one for recycling and one for non-recyclable rubbish.
But as well as making the practicalities of recycling easier, we also need to give residents an incentive to recycle beyond the warm fuzzy feeling we get from doing something "good". I believe that the financial gain realised by a council from the savings made from a reduction in the amount of rubbish sent to landfill, should be shared only with those of us who actively recycle, rather than everyone. As recycling becomes easier and easier, why should those who have never recycled benefit in equal measure to those who do? How we bring that about needs a lot more thought and debate because the issue of councils monitoring each household's rubbish has, understandably, been very controversial.
In part, the hostility aroused was because councils didn't consult on their plans, didn't explain properly what they were doing and why, and - most importantly - didn't want to reduce the bills of those who did recycle: they just wanted to add even more tax to those who didn't. Well, as I've argued before, that's a disastrous mistake: green taxes must not be EXTRA taxes. And besides, incentives to do something usually work far better than punishments for not doing it.
At first, I thought the Council had thrown its support behind the radical idea I've been supporting for some time - that of allowing councils to cut the council tax of those who recycle more. This is something that would act as a personal incentive for all of us to boost recycling and save money at the same time.
Just 26% of Wandsworth's rubbish is currently recycled: that remains a low figure given recycling has been a mainstream environmental policy for twenty years or so. I think our recycling rate should be double that - and it's achievable, even in an inner London borough like ours.
But for that we need stronger local leadership. Recycling on council estates remains minimal: a few bins are provided but they're insufficient and not emptied regularly enough. Recycling on estates has become associated with mess and inconvenience, rather than a social good. Only this week I've been in correspondence with the council about this: they sited a bin right next to a resident's living room window. He can't open his window because of the smell created and flies attracted by the recycling as the bin gets full a few days before it is due for collection. This isn't an incentive to recycle: it's a barrier to it.
Doubling Wandsworth's recycling rate won't be easy but we need to make the effort. On council estates, the council has to look at something that has a terrible name but is the only way to really get recycling going: "vertical kerbside" - which means door to door recycling collections. Or, in blocks where there are two distinct rubbish chutes, it should look at the viability of designating one for recycling and one for non-recyclable rubbish.
But as well as making the practicalities of recycling easier, we also need to give residents an incentive to recycle beyond the warm fuzzy feeling we get from doing something "good". I believe that the financial gain realised by a council from the savings made from a reduction in the amount of rubbish sent to landfill, should be shared only with those of us who actively recycle, rather than everyone. As recycling becomes easier and easier, why should those who have never recycled benefit in equal measure to those who do? How we bring that about needs a lot more thought and debate because the issue of councils monitoring each household's rubbish has, understandably, been very controversial.
In part, the hostility aroused was because councils didn't consult on their plans, didn't explain properly what they were doing and why, and - most importantly - didn't want to reduce the bills of those who did recycle: they just wanted to add even more tax to those who didn't. Well, as I've argued before, that's a disastrous mistake: green taxes must not be EXTRA taxes. And besides, incentives to do something usually work far better than punishments for not doing it.
Labels: green taxes, local environment, recycling
posted by Stuart King at
07:55
<< Home